Abstract

Archaeological excavations were carried out in advance of the construction of residential housing at Land adjacent to Chapel End, Sawtry between March and September 2017. This revealed a sequence of archaeological deposits dating from the Roman to post-medieval periods.
Isolated Roman and Anglo-Saxon features were revealed in the southernmost part of the site (Area 1), with contemporary finds also recovered as residual elements in later features across the site. A number of Late Saxon features were also present comprising pits and a series of ditches that, broadly, lay on north-west to south-east alignments.
The majority of the archaeological remains dated to the early medieval period. The main feature types were enclosure and boundary ditches and a number of pits. These features appeared to have been set out on alignments respecting the route of Chapel End. There was also some evidence for backplots of properties fronting onto Chapel End.
Based upon the finds evidence it would appear that the boundaries on site fell out of use during the 14th century. There was little evidence for later activity, other than a number of post-medieval ponds in the northern part of the site.